Presby-Musings

I was reading from a new anthology of Mary Oliver's poems entitled Devotion , and this line from one of her poems resonated with me:   Why do people keep asking to see  God’s identity papers When the darkness opening into morning  Is more than enough?  I started thinking deeply about that line, and I remembered the many moments when I'd seen the night turn into the morning, and how it felt to witness it.   I am a little boy and I woke up early before dawn and went to the window in the kitchen to see the morning light begin to break upon Pikes Peak off in the distance.  The mountains turned red for a moment and I thought I'd never seen anything more beautiful.  I am sitting outside on a bench in the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World.  The park isn't open yet, and I am having some coffee before beginning my day.  The darkness begins to break and I see the sunlight flicker across Cinderella's Castle making it seem magical.   I am staring out the window of my home offi

We're on the home stretch friends.  2020 will soon be a memory and largely a pretty bad one at that.   I wish that everything would be suddenly different after the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, but I'm pretty sure that it won't be.  There are more bright days ahead of us than behind us at this point, which is comforting... but we need to be realistic.   There are still so very many people who have become so twisted up in unreality, disinformation, and outright lies that it's nigh to impossible that we're ever going to see anything that resembles unity for a while.   Lest you think I am wallowing in misery over this--I'm not exactly.   It bothers me, don't get me wrong.  But I believe that there is a way forward beyond the false dichotomies we've created, the gross demonizations of one another we perpetuate, and all of the destructive ways we seem so invested in winning at all costs.   I'm currently reading Richard Rohr's latest book Th

Have you ever witnessed someone do something incredibly kind for a complete stranger?  I have seen this happen more than a few times in my life.   I once saw a guy seemingly risk his own life on a busy street chasing down papers that a woman had blown out of her hands.  I also saw a bunch of surly-looking teenage boys, who ran like two blocks to help an old lady collect her dog, which had gotten off of his leash.   But sometimes the sacrifices that people make for perfect strangers are hard to explain.   During the height of the Holocaust, there were many brave people who risked their lives hiding Jewish families and saving them from certain death.   I also recall a recent story of a young black woman who threw herself over the body of a neo-Nazi at a protest in order to protect him from getting beaten by counter-protesters.  She protected with her own body, a stranger who essentially hated her because of the color of her skin.    What makes us do these kinds of things? What makes us s

In his excellent book on forgiveness, Desmond Tutu writes about how there are some people who you need to forgive, in spite of the fact that they will never acknowledge or receive your forgiveness.  It could be that they may never even know that you forgive them.   There have been so many people in my life that I've had to forgive from afar because they either they faded out of contact, or they were too toxic to reconnect with--or probably a few other things in between.   So what do you do when the person who has wronged or wounded you is no longer able to stand in front of you to receive your forgiveness?  You forgive them anyway. Because in the end, forgiveness is far less about the person who wronged you, and so much more about you and your own well being.  The funny thing is some people do a really good job of giving you opportunities to forgive them, and set yourself free.   You probably have a few of these gift-giving folk in your sphere of influence.  They get under your ski

I read a story the other day that inspired me, and I needed some inspiration because all the news that day had been not-so-great.  Feroza Syed was waiting in a fast-food drive-thru lane in suburban Atlanta recently when she witnessed a man do something reprehensible.   Because his drink was served to him with ice (he'd ordered it without), he tossed the whole thing back into the drive-thru window, before racing off in a rage.  When Syed pulled up she found the young woman working the window soaked and sobbing.   Syed comforted the young woman and then tipped her $20, encouraging her to keep her chin up.  But as she drove away, she became more and more convinced that she couldn't let it go.   So she told the story on Facebook and other social media platforms and petitioned her friends to donate some money that she could give to the young woman, whose name was Bryanna---just to show her there was good in the world.   In the end, Syed was able to raise $1700, which she drove to th

  It's the last Sunday of Advent---this season of expectation---and we are going to take another unexpected turn as we hear the story of how an angel showed up and wrecked a young girl's life.  And this is what we are going to be holding on to today as our big idea--the one thing that I want you to remember from today's sermon:  Mary's "yes" overrides all of our "no's." Here's our text for today:  26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to

I was reading from the late Fr. Anthony De Mello's excellent little book The Way To Love today, and I came across something that struck me right to the core.   I ended up re-reading the passage again several times, feeling more and more convicted with each reading, and I knew that I needed to reflect on it and share what I was thinking.   Fr. Anthony was talking about the nature of Love, and how we can go about actually loving everyone as Jesus commanded us to do.  It all started with a simple analogy...  A lamp doesn't turn off when a "wicked" person walks toward it.  A tree doesn't withdraw its shade from someone--even when that person is there to cut the tree down.  In the same way, Love doesn't withdraw from people on a whim or even if they refuse to acknowledge Love.   In other words, if we claim to be followers of Jesus, and desire to be the kind of people that actually emulate the love of Christ to the world----we need to be indiscriminate with how we s

When I was at the gym yesterday working out with my trainer (we were all masked up and safe, just to be clear), I noticed a middle-aged woman who was doing some kind of dance routine in front of a large mirror in front of us.  It wasn't a pretty sight, to be blunt. She would fling her arms awkwardly into the air and then spin around in an ungainly fashion.  She would try to do splits, but couldn't make it all the way down to the floor, and would sort of collapse at the end, roll out of the collapse and then spring up to start again.  I remarked on it to my trainer, who raised her eyebrows and said, "Every day.  She does that every day."   In between being tortured by reverse lunges, and other hideous exercises, I would watch the Dancer continue to flail about to the music she was listening to on her headphones... spinning, falling, rising, and jumping... And then I noticed something beautiful.   It was the look on her face.  She was smiling throughout the whole thing.

I have to make a confession.  I tend to do that here from time to time.  Confession is good for the soul, after all.  So here goes.  Sometimes... I  tend to imagine God the way that I want God to be.   It's something that I am not always aware of at the moment, but there are times when I  suddenly realize that all of the ways I've been thinking about God have been blown up by the ways that God seems to be revealed around me.   In other words, God doesn't fit in any of my boxes.  God isn't shaped at all like my preconceived notions about God.  God defies my categories.  God shows up in the most unexpected ways, and in the form of so many unexpected people, places, and things.   I was reading today from Alan Watt's fascinating and timely book The Wisdom of Insecurity , and I came across this line that really spoke to me about my efforts to create God in my own image.  Here's what he said:   It is surely absurd to seek God in terms of a preconceived idea of what G

  The election is officially over.   I get that there may be more shenanigans between now and January 20th, but still... the electoral college voted, and that puts a period at the end of the sentence.  It's over.  We should be able to move on now, right?   I wish it were that simple, but I'm afraid that we might be too far gone in terms of the acrimony, division, and outrage that have become such a part of our common discourse in the public sphere.   I kind of want to blame social media for all of this.  It's an easy target, to be fair.   Back in the day, all of our opinions, ideas, conspiracy theories, and outrage were confined to our living rooms or dining tables... or the breakrooms of our workplaces... or our cars as we drove along listening to talk radio.   Most of the time we were making our points to people who were right in front of us, and whose faces we could see if we said something hurtful.   Now, we can post anything we want on our social media platforms withou

I have never felt holy.  I  suppose as a pastor I ought to have had a few moments when I have, but there it is.  I have never felt holy.   And I guess I would define "holiness" as a certain kind of serenity combined with wisdom---a way of staying above the fray, calm in the midst of chaos, and always ready with just the right theological reflection to share in any given moment.   The people I've met who would classify as "holy" had a kind of peaceful aura about them.  You could almost see it emanating from them.   When you were with them, you felt like you were in the presence of something unique, and you kind of felt like you could have told them anything and they would have responded with exactly what you needed to hear.  As I write this, I realize how unrealistic my expectations were for these people, though.   I typically saw them or met with them at their very best.  I didn't sit with them in their moments of doubt.  I didn't see them get angry, or

This is the Third Sunday of the Season of Advent, and we are one more step closer to the promise of Christmas Eve, and the arrival of the Messiah.  During this season of expectation, it's time for another unexpected turn...  A pregnant teenage girl who sings a song for the ages...  Like last week, I'm doing things a bit differently today with the sermon so we're going to start with what I want us to hold on to as we journey together today.  Here it is:  Only God can make everything right side up by turning everything upside down.  Let's read Luke 1:46b-55:  46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord 47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful     of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—     holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,     from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;     h

I had a pretty sleepless night the other night.  I woke up at 1:30AM and knew that sleep was going to be elusive, but I had no idea that I'd still be awake when my alarm went off at 5:30AM.  My wife had fallen asleep watching Grey's Anatomy so I thought to myself, "I'll just watch an episode or so, and I'm sure it will put me right to sleep."  Alas, I found myself drawn into the fantastic storylines following Dr. Meredith Grey and the gang at Grey-Sloane Memorial.   That and I had a bunch of stuff in my head spinning out of control, which didn't help matters at all.   Needless to say, I spent the next day feeling a bit like a zombie, walking around in a daze, trying to do work, to make all my meetings, even to go to the gym for a training appointment.   At some point, I was jacked up on caffeine, barely able to hold a thought in my head, yawning uncontrollably, and wishing that I could stop everything and get off the ride for a while.  Only I had to keep

I have an irreverent sense of humor.   You can bear witness to this by taking a tour through my office at the church I serve.  It's chock full of things that some (obviously uptight) people would probably mark as evidence that I've got one foot in hell and the other on a banana peel.   It might be the collection of hilarious Jesus toys that would catch your eye first or the bumper stickers on my bookshelves with Big Lebowski quotes about "Jesus," one of the characters in the movie.   Near my desk, there's a humorous book filled with lurid Bible stories that you wouldn't tell children for love nor money.  Then there the strange art quotes that I have scattered around:  "Jesus, Texas & Tacos" one of them declares.  Or this one: "If you are looking for a sign, this is it."   One of my favorite religious-themed movies of all time is Monty Python's Life of Brian ("Follow the gourd!"), which I've seen probably fifty times.  

I've been listening to a lot of religious types in the news lately, many of whom claim to be speaking for God about elections, and viruses, or social issues like racial injustice, and climate change... among other things.  It's interesting to hear the various points of view that many so-called Christians have about these kinds of issues---particularly when the points of view that they express seem to be grounded in a world that doesn't really exist.  Or they happen to be attached to notions about God that have been far more harmful than helpful in making the Gospel known to a weary world in search of hope.   I got to thinking about Galileo Galilei this week, and how he was found guilty of heresy by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633 simply because he promoted the theory that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the other way around.  He was placed under "house arrest" until his death in 1642.  Astoundingly, the Church hasn't officially rescinded

One of my many religious pet peeves is when people who claim to follow Jesus use overly-Christian phrases or sayings, most of which are absolutely insufferable and cringe-worthy.   Most of them are fairly innocuous, but perhaps the one that fires me up more than most is this one:   Love the sinner, hate the sin.   I've heard that phrase uttered by Christians my whole life.  I know that the general sentiment behind it is one that is tacitly grounded in at least some measure of grace.  The idea is that despite what someone might do, we can still acknowledge and love the true humanity within them.   But the way it is most often used by Christian-y folk is not at all grace-filled.   The first problem with this particular phrase is that for most of the Christians who repeat it, the first part of the line is typically there for window dressing, nothing more.    If it were graphically illustrated, the way most Christians who repeat that line actually feel is like this:  love the sinner ,

It's been hard to escape the deluge of sobering news regarding the COVID crisis here in the United States.  God knows I've tried.  Maybe you have, too.   But still, it's always there in front of us, and I'm noticing that the news isn't coming from parts unknown any longer.  I have more and more friends who are being affected by the pandemic---including some who became quite ill, or who lost family members.   Try as we might, it's hard to find moments of normalcy in the midst of a world that has moved on from what used to be, and into an unknown future.  It's also hard to navigate through the anxiety that is always thrumming just below the surface of everything over the deep divisions in our society.  Things are not as they ought to be---that much is clear.   So today I was reading through some of my notes, and I happened upon this C.S. Lewis quote that I found myself reading over and over again because it resonated with me on a level I couldn't fully com